Page 25 of A Darkness So Sweet

A small laugh bubbled out of her as well, then a longer one, and soon they were all braced against each other, laughing until tears ran down their cheeks.

“I really am sorry,” Inkeri stammered out. “I just assumed after four days of being mated that you would have at leastseenthe damn thing.”

“I haven’t!” Maia said with another laugh. “But what kind of piercings does one even put on a cock?”

Hulda gathered them all up, forcing the younger women to stand and then nudging them all forward. “Back to the camp with the lot of you. We aren’t answering that question, fire hair. That’s a question for your husband.”

And what a shame that was, because Maia was married to a man who had very little use for her at all. Questions? He wouldn’t answer a single one of them. And she certainly wouldn’t be asking him about his cock.

ChapterTen

RAGNAR

Today was the day. The last day where he might be able to wriggle out of this. They traveled closer and closer to the blood witch, the one who would see into their future and deliver them news of their children. She would mingle their magic, and that would bind them until the end of time. All he had to do was make it to this point, and then, maybe, all his questions would be answered.

He’d successfully avoided his human for multiple days now. Nearly a week of travel and he’d slept in Gunnar’s tent. The other trolls were starting to wonder why his mate was so unworthy of their healer, but he’d never paid mind to gossip.

The more he could hold himself back from her, the better. Ragnar barely even looked at her when he stopped in front of their tent to pick her up and run. It didn’t matter what she looked like. It didn’t matter now if she was even clean. All he could think was that if he could just hold off until the blood witch, then everything would be easier.

He didn’t want to get to know her. The less he knew her, the easier it would be for him to let her go.

He’d denied her this long. The blood witch would know. She would sense that they were not a good match and that their children would suffer because of it.

Stopping in front of their tent, he took a deep breath and steadied himself. Just one day with her alone. One day where he couldn’t distract himself by talking to the other trolls or pretending to be out of breath while he ran. This was easy enough.

But then Maia walked out of the tent as though she knew he was waiting and all the breath in his lungs rushed out.

The piercings in her ears. He had known they’d done it, but he hadn’t expected her to be solovelywearing them. The gold sat on her skin better than anything he would have chosen for a troll wife. They were delicate and thin wired, not so flashy that they were the first thing anyone saw, but still lovely all the same. When she moved, her red hair tangled around them, leaving little sparks of gold in the strands.

He suddenly had a vision of what he would make her. Golden clasps for her hair. He’d braid it into intricate weavings and then seal those braids with golden caps. She was a woman made for gold. Perhaps he would inlay rubies in a necklace as well, because those would look so pretty sitting against that graceful throat, bouncing against her pulse.

And then he scowled at his own thoughts. He would not decorate her with anything at all. She was a human, and he did not want a human for his troll wife. He never had. He would not bend now simply because she hadn’t complained at all during this journey.

“Come,” he said, holding out his hand for her to take. “We see the blood witch today.”

“Who is that?”

He just impatiently thrust his hand toward her, waiting until she would wrap her arms around his neck and they could be off. Usually she was quick to jump when he ordered her, but this time, she did not. Instead, she sidestepped his hand and wrapped her arms around herself.

“I’d prefer to walk if it’s not far,” she said.

She didn’t meet his eyes when she said it, but it was the first time she’d ever asked him for anything. Progress. He wanted her to tell him when she needed something, even if he wasn’t going to keep her. He shouldn’t.

But he still found himself nodding. “We can walk.”

No, he did not want to walk! He didn’t want to give her a chance to start talking to him because that was the very last thing he should be doing. She was the enemy. A creature of terrifying abilities to do more damage than he could ever dream up. She and her kind were the monsters in this realm, not his.

Yet he walked with her. He guided her away from the camp until it was just them. There was only the sound of their footsteps in the forest as they meandered away from the others. The companionable silence was well enough for him. It wouldn’t convince him to change his mind, but then she started talking and he just... listened.

“The forest always frightened me when I was young. People told stories about all the terrible things that lurked in the dark and all the awful ways we would die if we went beyond the treeline.” He watched her press her fingers to the bark of an old tree, using it to help her over a fallen log. “But I don’t think the forest is so scary now.”

“There are beasts in these woods that are dangerous. Dire wolves, stone bears, even the Weavers, which are similar to large spiders, but they can speak.” Ragnar shrugged. “Those stories were likely told to keep you safe.”

“I suppose so. But I wanted to thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn that it isn’t all bad. I think my life is better for having known that not everything in these woods is terrifying.”

He hated that he liked what she said. Ragnar had been the one to show her there was more to this world than just what she had seen through her human eyes. He was the one who had given her the gift of the forest’s beauty.

Damn it, he had other things to do here. Like keep himself held away from her so the blood witch would change her mind.

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